DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997 TAG: 9703250256 SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B9 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: BY KATRICE FRANKLIN, STAFF WRITER DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 84 lines
Clarice C. Johnson can tell times have changed by looking around her 1-acre lot on Town Point Road in northern Suffolk.
Forty years ago, when her father moved his burial vault manufacturing business from Portsmouth, the area was occupied by peach orchards, wheat fields, chicken farms and woodlands. Town Point Road and College Drive were two-lane, rural roads.
While her family loved the atmosphere, they knew that their property one day would be in a prime development area.
That day has come, and now the Johnsons - along with other nearby property owners - are being asked to sacrifice some of their choice land in the name of progress.
Suffolk wants to add Town Point Road and College Drive to its Special Corridor Overlay District - a zoning mechanism that controls traffic flow by limiting the number of entrances off main roads and imposes landscape requirements.
The district is needed to manage growth, said Planning Director Paul E. Fisher. ``Development is occurring so rapidly, especially along those corridors,'' he said.
The landowners are being asked to leave unused 40 feet of land in the front and 30 feet on the sides and back of their properties. That land, enough for several parking spaces or other uses, would have to be landscaped but could not be used by its owners for anything other than an access road to several users.
Eighteen other main roads are already in such districts. Suffolk Shopping Center, just north of downtown on Main Street, is an example of a shared entrance. Customers of a grocery store, fast food restaurants, a bank and several other businesses use the common entrance from Main Street.
The Planning Commission last week endorsed adding Town Point Road and College Drive, and the City Council will hold a public hearing next month.
Folks like the Johnsons say they're not blind to the realities of growth. They agree philosophically with the overlay district and don't want Suffolk to end up with roads like Virginia Beach Boulevard, where it can take up to 10 minutes to travel three miles.
But they don't want to lose their land, and they see themselves as small fish in a sea of whales.
Their area - between the urban sprawl of Churchland and Interstate 664, an expressway linking the area to Hampton and Newport News - has numerous major landowners who are building or planning large developments.
Harbourview, with about 650 homes, is off of College Drive. The development has zoning for up to 3,000 homes and contains an industrial and commerce park that houses the military's Joint Training Analysis and Simulation Center.
Commercial growth is on the rise, and shops, hotels and stores are planned in the area.
Tidewater Community College's Portsmouth campus is also there, and it now houses the Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center.
The overlay district is not popular with some of the major developers. One said his company could lose up to five acres of land.
About seven years ago, area residents had to sell 90 feet of their property for the widening of College Drive and Town Point Road to support the influx of rooftops and traffic that came with the erection of Interstate 664.
Johnson said she had hopes of constructing an office building for lease. But by the time she complies with parking regulations and leaves vacant the land for the overlay district, she's not sure that her land can be developed.
``We'll really be stretching it,'' Johnson said. ``My husband jokes that all they (the city) want us to do is grow grass and pay taxes.''
Neal Griffin, whose family owns a trucking business on the corner of both roads, said they could lose almost an acre from their 5-acre lot.
``The way this plan is drawn out, it's knocking the daylights out of people's property,'' Griffin said.
Griffin said he wouldn't have a problem with the overlay district if each property were looked at individually.
Fisher agrees that the Griffins have an unusual case. But in such circumstances, he said, the city accepts applications for hardship variances.
``We have no guarantee that our request would be granted,'' Griffin said. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II photos/The
Virginian-Pilot
Suffolk wants property owners wants to leave unused 40 feet of land
in the front and 30 feet on the sides and back of their properties,
as this Applebee's Restaurant is doing.
Clarice C. Johnson indicates the land the city of Suffolk is asking
her and her husband, Andy, right, to sacrifice. KEYWORDS: SUFFOLK DEVELOPMENT ZONING
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